United says it is not interested in buying Mirror Group's 18.6pc stake in Scottish Media.

Instead, The Express-to-ITV group plans to focus on business services, which now account for 53pc of sales. These include trade publisher Miller Freeman, NOP market research and PR Newswire.

Last year's profits edged up 1.1pc to £290m pre-tax, though the underlying figure rose 10pc. Television start-ups, including its shares in digital channel ITV-2 and Channel 5, cost £25m.

Dividends will rise to 22.9, up 0.5p, provided Garban meets City forecasts.

Lord Hollick says: '1999 is off to a bright start, with a good performance in a number of our businesses.' The outlook 'is in line with expectations'. The shares rose 21p to 652p, or 17-times likely earnings.